SOC2069 Quantitative Datasets

Workshop data

This dataset combines data on “generalised/social trust” from the latest waves of the World Values Survey and the European Values Study with macro(country)-level data on World Development Indicators (WDI) provided by the World Bank. The main variables of interest taken from the WDI refer to measurements of economic inequality within countries. The dataset allows to replicate - using the latest available data - the analysis of the relationship between inequality and trust presented in Chapter 4 (“Community life and social relations”, pp. 49-62) of Wilkinson and Pickett (2010).

Download

This dataset is the one used by Österman (2021) for the analysis underpinning the results reported in his Table 3 and related tables in the Online Supplementary Material. The aim of the article is to use information on educational reforms across European countries as a way to set up a quasi-experimental design testing the effect of education on social trust. With this approach, it aims to overcome the limitations of cross-sectional observational survey data from the European Social Survey by attempting a causal - rather than just correlational- explanation.

Download

Assignment data

Available datasets for download:

References

Österman M (2021) Can we trust education for fostering trust? Quasi-experimental evidence on the effect of education and tracking on social trust. Social Indicators Research 154(1): 211–233.
Wilkinson RG and Pickett K (2010) The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. New York: Bloomsbury Press.